1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data communication. In particular, the invention relates to data interleaving and de-interleaving.
2. Description of Related Art
Many applications in communication require the data to be temporally separated to improve error distribution statistics. In a typical communication system, errors tend to occur in bursts and the error pattern is highly correlated and concentrated in a small portion of the data stream. The common error correction methods work better when the error events are distributed randomly and appear uncorrelated. Temporally separating the input data stream redistributes the data bits so that the errors are spread into several different code words, resulting in a more random distribution of error events.
Data interleaving is a common technique to temporally separate digital information. The purpose is to provide a time buffer between errors which are known to be clustered in time. The time buffer provides an opportunity to correct successive erroneous bits using error correcting code (ECC) methods.
However, as the data rates increase, traditional techniques to temporally separate data or to re-organize temporally separated data become inefficient. To accommodate high data rates, traditional techniques typically require expensive hardware.
Therefore there is a need in the technology to provide an efficient method to temporally separate an input data stream and to re-organize a temporally separated input data stream in a communication system.